He never left, not really
by MrsLongbottom13
Summary: "and, as they all looked at the clock, Fred's name, which had been set at 'mortal peril' for the last 19 years, suddenly changed to 'Quidditch' and that's when they saw Hugo smiling in at them from the Quidditch Pitch. The clock is never wrong." FLUFF!


_**He never left, not really**_

_**Just a tad bit of family fluff—Ron, Molly, and the rest of the Potter/Weasley clan is sure that Fred lives on in Hugo**_

"Fred Weasley touched the lives of everyone he met with his humour, liveliness, spirit, and overall personality…"

Hermione Weasley looked at this plaque in the Weasley's Burrow, and it brought tears to her eyes. She chose not to remember that fateful day, but the memories that flooded forward, she let come:

_Hermione stood back with Harry, astounded at what she saw. It took a moment for the tears to come. She saw Fred Weasley, the boy she always argued with, the boy she always yelled at, the boy she always threatened, the boy she's always loved as a brother, lying there, dead. She could barely bring herself to watch Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who were just as much parents to her as the Grangers, crying, clinging on to the memories they had of their son, trying to push away the cruel present, and how, assuredly, more tragedies like this would occur tonight. Hermione groped for Harry's strong hand as she saw Ginny, her best friend, the strongest girl she knew, standing stiff as a board, face ashen, trying to be the strong one. But she couldn't take it. Hermione knew how much Fred loved and protected Ginny, and Hermione's tears flooded out right as she saw Ginny lean into her mom, sobbing. She saw Percy, who came back to the family with open arms after the Ministry had fallen, staring at his brother, silent silver tears falling down his grim face. He wondered what he could have done to save Fred. How much Fred had hated him when he'd left the family. But most of all, Percy trembled with un-released sobs at the fact that Fred had welcomed Percy home with a day of silent treatment, but then acting as if none of it ever happened. And a week later, there lie his brother, dead. And there was Bill, his arms around his wife, Fleur, as they both shed tears over the loss of someone they loved so dear. George was by far the biggest mess. He'd lost his literal other half. Fred and George did everything together: Shared a dorm, Shared secrets, they even opened a joke business together when they realized their true passion was getting into trouble with odds and ends made by them. George couldn't take it, and he leaned over his brother, shaking, sobbing, wishing none of this ever happened, willing it to go away. George thought that he would have Fred forever, so he took him for granted, and that was his worst mistake of all. But the one thing that made Hermione really lose it was the sight of Ron, hunched over Fred, sobbing. Hermione had never seen Ron like this. He'd never cried. __**Ever. **__But some things push you to the edge, and other cruel things just shove you right over. Chasing Horcruxes had pushed Ron to the edge. But a sick, twisted person like Voldemort and his Death Eaters had shoved him over the edge, taking the thing that mattered most: Family. Taking someone away from them, someone you care about so much, was cruel . There were no other words to descrbe it, And seeing Ron being pushed over the edge, pushed Hermione over the edge too. She loved Ron, and he loved her. He was her other half, and seeing him cry brought misty tears to her pale, ash-streaked face also. _

The flashback ended, only then did Hemione realize that she was surrounded by the people in her vision: Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Harry, Ginny, Bill, Fleur, Percy, George, and Angelina. The people that mattered most to her. Her family. She looked at all of them. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had all once been best friends, they'd been through the unthinkable together but now, it was ironic because they were all a family, with the Wizarding World in peace. All of the kids were playing upstairs, but one was tugging on his mother's blouse. "Mommy, are you ok?" asked Hugo, his wide , brown, innocent eyes looking into hers. Only then did she realize she'd been crying. She ruffled his flaming red hair. "Yes, Hugo, I'm fine, I was just thinking about-" she was cut off by is high, quiet voice. "Uncle Fred, I know. I think about him a lot too. He tells me that I'm a lot like him, and that he misses you all very much." They all stared at him like he had just sprouted wings. He said it so innocently, so without care, it was hard to believe. "D-did you say that Uncle Fred _**TALKED**_ to you, Sweetie?" Ginny asked, hands trembling. "Well, sometimes I just get these voices in my head. They sound like Unlce George, but I didn't realize he had a twin until the voice introduced himself as my Unlce Fred." He said, smiling. They were all astounded. He was right. Hugo Weasley _didn't _know that Geroge had a twin. It's not like the Potter/Weasley clan was keeping it from him, Fred, even after all these years, was a sensitive subject to the entire family, and it was only spoken of as family events, with little tidbits of what trouble the twins got into at a young age. But Hugo only thought there was an Uncle Harry, Uncle Bill, Uncle Charlie, Uncle George, and Uncle Percy. Never an Uncle George. And that was proof that Fred Weasley really _was_ trying to make a connection with the family. And, as the entire family looked into the swimming brown pools of Hugo Weasley's eyes and his beyond-red hair, they realized that he really _was_ the spitting image of Fred and George. As Ron kissed Hermione on the forehead and Ginny rested her head on Harry's shoulder, the clock Mrs. Weasley always kept with the faces of her family, now including Hermione, Angelina, Fleur, and Harry, Fred's smiling face on one of the hands turned, just for a millisecond, from "mortal peril" where it had remained for 17 years, to "Quiddich," and that's when the Weasley Family realized Hugo smiled at them from a broom on the Weasley's small, home-made Quiddich pitch. Then the whole family embraced, realizing the plaque was right, Fred really wasn't gone. He never left. As Hermione, holding Ron's hand, looking back at the plaque's inscription "_Fred Weasley touched the lives of everyone he met with his humour, liveliness, spirit, and overall personality. He will live on in all that he met_" She realized it was a lie. Not only will he live on in those he's known and met, he also lives on in those lives he _hadn't met, _and that, to Hermione and Ron, was real magic. So they looked forward to the future, putting all foul memories behind them, because Fred wouldn't want them looking back on this death. He'd want them to look on as his life continued in one small, troublesome 9 year-old boy, because, as we all knew, Fred lived for trouble. And, not surprisingly, Hugo did too.


End file.
